New York Construction Accident Lawyers

New York City is known for its diversity, energy, and most of all architecture. Composed of over 700,000 buildings including thousands of high rises, the skyline of New York is legendary.

The past and present construction workers of New York, NY, deserve credit for building, renovating, and even demolishing these iconic buildings. They also hold responsibility for laying and maintaining over 6,000 miles of roads and highways.

Construction work plays a big role in making New York City the unforgettable place that it is. Yet, this necessary work of constructing buildings and roads always carries some risk of injury.

Why Construction Accidents Happen

Despite safety regulations and protective equipment, there were 77,490 non-fatal construction injuries and occupational illnesses in 2018. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 22 people lost their lives in construction-related accidents in New York City in the same year.

What was behind these unfortunate construction site accidents? The US Bureau of Labor Statistics compiled some occupational injury and accident statistics for the years between 2011 and 2018. They found that construction site accidents and injuries are often attributed to:

• Contact with objects or equipment
• Contact with animals or plants (e.g. bites, stings, poisons, venom)
• Confinement
• Depletion of oxygen (e.g. drowning, submersion)
• Electrocution
• Environmental conditions (e.g. avalanches, flooding, earthquakes)
• Exposure to harmful chemicals, substances, or environments
• Extreme temperatures
• Explosions
• Welding accidents
• Fires
• Falling, slipping, or tripping accidents
• Negligence of other construction workers or site owner
• Overexertion
• Road collisions (motor vehicle, machinery, or pedestrian)

In the New York construction industry, workers may also be regularly exposed to certain risk factors. For instance, they may encounter dangerous levels of noise, chemicals, or dust at construction sites. Regular or prolonged exposure to extreme weather conditions (high or low temperatures, strong winds, direct sun exposure, etc.) may also contribute to health problems.

The construction site conditions may contribute to medical problems, often referred to as occupational diseases.

Occupational medical conditions may also come from the nature of the construction work. Repetitive motions, exposure to vibrations, or holding the same position too long can cause problems.

One construction research organization found that the following occupational diseases commonly occur among construction workers:

• Asbestosis from inhaling asbestos fibers
• Cancer
• Chronic obstructive lung diseases (e.g., chronic bronchitis, emphysema)
• Chronic pain
• Infertility and miscarriages due to elevated blood lead levels
• Hearing loss
• Neurological damage
• Musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome, sprains, strains, tendonitis)

Of course, these lists don’t include everything that might happen on a construction site. You may be unsure if your illness or injury is related to your occupation. In your personal life, you might turn to a dependable, knowledgeable friend for support. But when it comes to construction accidents, you may be at a loss as to what to do.

Our law firm, Hill & Moin, would like to lend you a helping hand.  We understand the complex issues associated with New York City construction accidents.

We can help you determine if work caused your New York construction injury or illness. We have assisted hundreds of our New York clients in taking legal actions that resulted in millions of dollars in construction verdicts and settlements.

We can tell you now the first step you should take: Contact us. We offer free consultations to anyone who has been injured on a New York City construction site. You can leave us a brief message on our website telling us the nature of your claim. You are always welcome to relate to us the details of your injury accident case. We will let you know your rights.

Why You Deserve Compensation For Your New York Construction Accident

The effects of construction accidents are devastating. Maybe you used to make ends meet without too much trouble, but now you are unable to work due to your injuries. Meanwhile, medical bills are accumulating too fast for you to handle them. Doctor’s visits and therapy have replaced the time you used to spend working or relaxing with family.

Consider also the medical costs you have incurred due to your injury – from hospital and physician visits to surgeries, rehabilitative treatments, diagnostic tests, and prescriptions. Is it fair for you to have to cover all of these injury costs on your own?

Finally, calculate all the wages you have lost since your accident. Have you had to miss work as you recover due to pain, immobility, or go to a doctor’s appointment or therapy session? If you hadn’t had your injury, you could have earned money during this time. This is of serious concern, and you have the right to recover your lost earnings.

New York’s workers’ compensation system has seen significant improvements following new legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in September 2023. Starting January 1, 2024, the minimum weekly workers’ compensation benefit will increase from $150 to $275, with another raise to $325 in 2025. This change aims to provide stronger financial support for injured workers, ensuring they can better manage expenses related to lost wages and medical costs. These updates reflect the state’s commitment to enhancing protections for employees hurt on the job, offering a more secure financial safety net as they recover.

Our construction accident lawyers know New York labor law well. You can rely on our caring construction accident lawyers to show you how to secure your family’s future well-being. We will do our part to protect your family’s interests during this difficult time as you recover from your injury.

As a service to the New York construction community, we offer free accident consultations. A construction accidents lawyer can explain your options. Your appointment is confidential and you will never have any obligation to hire us. However, you will need to do so at your earliest convenience.

Why You Need to Act Quickly After a New York Construction Accident

As soon as a construction accident occurs in New York, the minutes of an invisible clock start ticking away. From applying for workers’ compensation claims to filing personal injury lawsuits, everything has a strict time limit. You must act quickly to recover damages for a personal injury or wrongful death accident claim.

The problem is, most people don’t automatically know what to do. You will likely have to research what to do and how to do it. Yet, every hour you spend looking for answers is time lost from actually filing your claim, and the more time you take gathering current information, the more likely you are to miss important deadlines that you did not learn about until it is too late. Finally, it is very difficult to figure out what to do and focus on recovery at the same time.

New York labor law sets differing guidelines for each type of injury claim. A capable Hill & Moin construction accident lawyer can show you how to confidently meet each impending deadline.

Personal injury accidents

If you are injured on a worksite as a construction worker or an independent contractor, you need to file for damages for your injuries as soon as possible.

To make a workers’ compensation claim in New York, you must follow the claims process. After your accident, notify your supervisor of your injuries immediately and seek medical treatment. Let your doctor know you were hurt at work. Make sure you get a medical report of your injuries from your physician. You will need this document to file for a workers’ compensation claim.

Within 30 days of the accident, you should write an account of how the accident occurred. Include a detailed description of your injuries. Give the report to your employer for your file.

Once your supervisor knows about your accident, he or she has to report the injury to the company’s insurer and the New York Workers’ Compensation Board District Office (WCB). Your employer should complete the reports within 10 days.

Occupational diseases

As discussed above, occupational medical conditions can arise due to the working environments of construction sites or the nature of the work tasks. Construction workers can collect the same benefits for work-related diseases or disabilities as those who suffered on-the-job injuries.

Construction workers who want compensation must file their claims within a specific period:

• 2 years from the date the construction worker’s disability started
• 2 years from the date the construction worker realized the disease was due to the nature of his or her employment

Occupational hearing loss

The noisy environment of a New York construction site can lead to hearing injuries over time. If you find yourself having trouble hearing, you should get the opinion of a medical specialist. If you do find a connection between your job and your hearing difficulties, you can seek compensation.

As always, you will have to work within time constraints:

• 3 months from the date you were removed from the noisy construction site environment
• 3 months after you leave the job in which you were exposed to harmful noise
• 3 months after being informed that you experienced work-related hearing injuries

A Hill & Moin construction accident lawyer can help you stay on schedule. We are familiar with the statutes of limitations for injuries and medical conditions associated with construction sites. We can help you file a claim before time runs out.

If the process goes smoothly, the Workers’ Compensation Board will send you a written statement of your rights under current New York labor law after they receive notice from your employer. Soon after that, you will start getting your compensation payments.

If you already filed but 3 weeks have passed with no pay, something may have gone wrong. We can help you figure it out so that you can get the money you are due.

Some claims are denied. If that happened to you, it is understandable to worry. The New York construction accident lawyers of Hill & Moin can help you put your mind at ease. We’ve got your back. Contact us and we can walk you through the process of appealing your rejected injury claim.

Why You Should Appeal Denied Workers’ Compensation Claims

According to the WCB, insurers dispute construction accident claims for various reasons. Among other situations, they may not believe that you have real injuries. Otherwise, they may suspect that the injuries happened outside of a New York, NY, construction site.

If this happens to you, you need someone on your side who knows the ropes. Remember, it’s your right to have your interests represented by a licensed construction accidents attorney. Often, the problem is simply the lack of evidence for your claims. For instance, if the insurer doubts your injury, you may have to get more proof from a physician. With our professional legal counsel team in your corner, you can appeal with confidence.

Eventually, you may end up in a hearing in front of a New York workers’ compensation labor law judge. Our construction accident attorneys will help you prepare your case to have a better chance of success. If you win, the insurer must pay your back construction wages and medical bills.

How to Recover the Damages You Deserve

You have the choice to file an appeal or accept a settlement without legal counsel, but doing so is not advisable. Unless you know the system, you could easily make a simple error that could cost you your case. Or else you may accept too low of an offer without realizing that you are entitled to more compensation.

Why not consult with a Hill & Moin construction accident attorney? We never charge for our free construction worker consultations. Call us at 646.762.1234 to talk to a lawyer from our firm.

We can tell you if you have a strong case to seek more personal injury damages. In the past, we have won thousands of dollars in additional compensation for clients after examining the circumstances of their construction site accident.

For instance, you may have noticed potential hazards at the construction site where you work. Slippery surfaces, construction waste, and moving machinery such as forklifts, may create a dangerous environment. Even though some construction site hazards are unavoidable, people who own properties are expected to keep their premises reasonably free of obstacles.

Property owners may thus have to take extra precautions to keep construction workers and independent contractors safe. During construction, they may post “High Voltage” or “Wet Surfaces” signs to warn construction workers of potential dangers, or they may ensure debris is cleaned regularly to keep construction site pathways clear.

New York City premises liability laws hold property owners liable if they don’t fulfill their duties. In other words, the property owner is responsible if his or her negligence led to someone getting hurt. You can take advantage of the protection that these New York laws offer to demand compensation for your injuries.

The amount of money you receive depends on the circumstances of your individual case. The least challenging types of compensation to recover are lost construction wages and medical expenses. These sums are easy to calculate based on how many days of work you missed and the bills you received from healthcare providers.

Still, you may find yourself struggling to do everything you used to do before the accident. Unfortunately, for some, construction accidents bring about permanent consequences. Are your injuries serious? You may need to change jobs or stop working construction completely. If so, you may be wondering how you are going to take care of yourself and support your family.

Under current New York labor law, you can seek damages for your loss of earning potential if you are permanently disabled at work. In other words, a permanent disability qualifies you to apply for New York workers’ compensation insurance benefits for your lost wages and loss of future earning potential.

Besides causing physical disabilities, your injuries may affect you in other ways. Pain and loss of mobility may rob you of the joy you once experienced doing the activities you love.

Mental health professionals realize that the physical pain of work accidents is not the only effect of a work accident. According to the Visions Journal, about 50 percent of their study participants reported feeling depressed within 12 months of a personal injury. Some symptoms of depression are sadness, lack of appetite, trouble concentrating, and difficulty falling or staying asleep – and depression is just one of the many potential psychological tolls of a construction accident.

If a construction accident results in mental pain and suffering, it’s not fair for you to be forced to endure the effects of it for the rest of your life. The purpose of labor law and workers’ compensation insurance is to protect your rights. But you need to know how to use these resources to recover fair compensation for your personal injury accident. That’s where Hill & Moin can help.

We have helped many New York City construction workers recover damages after their construction accidents. Here are just a few examples:

• $2 million settlement for a Bronx Union carpenter injured at a construction site
• $1.125 million settlement for a New York laborer who fell from a ladder during a renovation
• $900,000 settlement for a construction laborer struck by a concrete column
• $850,000 settlement for a plumber struck by falling bricks at a construction site

On top of damages for medical expenses and lost wages, many of these construction worker settlements include compensation for pain and suffering. Families who lost loved ones in construction accidents know better than anyone how much it hurts. Let’s talk about how a Hill & Moin construction accident attorney can help you if you lost someone in a construction accident.

What to Do If Your Loved One Passed Away in a Construction Accident

The loss of a loved one is never easy. If you lost a mate, child, or parent in a construction accident, your sadness may seem unbearable. Money doesn’t have the power to compensate for your loved one’s life, but it can relieve some of your financial burden. What you need is a professional construction accident lawyer to join your family’s fight for your loved one’s rights.

Workers’ compensation insurance and labor laws were put in place to compensate families for their loved one’s lost future earning potential. We respect how hard your family member worked as a construction worker to provide for your family during his or her lifetime. We want to help you recover the cash benefits you deserve from workers’ comp. This way, your family can continue to be supported with the wages your loved one would have earned over time, had the accident not occurred.

Death benefits pay two-thirds of the average construction worker weekly wage earned by your loved one the year before the accident. You can also request funeral expenses that vary depending on where your family member lived. For instance, if he or she lived in Queens or the Bronx, the maximum amount for burial expenses is $12,500. But, if she lived in a different part of New York State, such as in Staten Island, you could claim only up to $10,500.

Sometimes, the injured worker may have been receiving construction accident compensation benefits for injuries, but at death, these benefits will stop so the spouse can no longer collect. The only way to continue to get payments is to prove that the death was related to the work injury. You will need to submit a copy of the death certificate and any relevant medical records to the WBC.

What if negligence was a factor in the work incident? You can hold the responsible party liable in a civil action lawsuit. Hill & Moin construction accident attorneys can file a case for a New York wrongful death proceeding.

A New York court will consider the circumstances that led up to the fatal construction accident. If they decide someone is at fault, they will calculate the value of non-economic losses, such as psychological pain and suffering, as well as the loss of companionship.

Like many relatives of construction accident victims, managing your grief may be all you can handle right now. The construction accident attorneys of Hill & Moin are ready to bear the pressure for you.

Let’s talk about your case as soon as possible. If you live in New York, you can contact us for a free evaluation of your case. An experienced Hill & Moin personal injury lawyer will review the details of your accident and the resulting injuries. We can give you an idea of what you deserve in workers’ compensation benefits and other accident damages.

Don’t wonder about your rights! Get your questions answered today and take the first step toward fair compensation for your New York City construction accident.